Pangaea II
Pangaea II is a supercontinent of 200 million AD, when it is the Earth's only significant landmass. Geography and climate Fauna Gallery Pangaea II coast.png Central Desert mounds.png Rainshadow Desert morning.png Central Desert oasis.png EP13 Rainforest canopy.png Behind the scenes Pangaea Ultima (also called Pangaea Proxima, Neopangaea, and Pangaea II) is a possible future supercontinent configuration. Consistent with the supercontinent cycle, Pangaea Ultima could occur within the next 250 million years. This potential configuration, hypothesized by Christopher Scotese, earned its name from its similarity to the previous Pangaea supercontinent. Scotese later renamed Pangaea Ultima (Last Pangaea) to Pangaea Proxima (Next Pangaea) to alleviate confusion about the name Pangaea Ultima which could imply that it would be the last supercontinent. The concept was based on examination of past cycles of formation and breakup of supercontinents, not on current understanding of the mechanisms of tectonic change, which are too imprecise to project that far into the future. "It's all pretty much fantasy to start with," Scotese has said. "But it's a fun exercise to think about what might happen. And you can only do it if you have a really clear idea of why things happen in the first place." Supercontinents describe the merger of all, or nearly all, of the Earth's landmass into a single contiguous continent. In the Pangaea Ultima scenario, subduction at the western Atlantic, east of the Americas, leads to the subduction of the Atlantic mid-ocean ridge followed by subduction destroying the Atlantic and Indian basin, causing the Atlantic and Indian Oceans to close, bringing the Americas back together with Africa and Europe. As with most supercontinents, the interior of Pangaea Proxima would probably become a semi-arid desert prone to extreme temperatures. According to the Pangaea Ultima hypothesis, the Atlantic and Indian Oceans will continue to get wider until new subduction zones bring the continents back together, forming a future Pangaea. Most continents and microcontinents are predicted to collide with Eurasia, just as they did when most continents collided to Laurentia. Around 50 million years from now, North America is predicted to shift slightly west and Eurasia would shift to the east, and possibly even to the south, bringing Great Britain closer to the North Pole and Siberia southward towards warm, subtropical latitudes. Africa is predicted to collide with Europe and Arabia, closing the Mediterranean Sea (completely closing the Tethys Ocean (or Neotethys) and the Red Sea). A long mountain range would then extend from Iberia, across Southern Europe (the Mediterranean Mountain Range) into Asia. Some are even predicted to have peaks higher than Mount Everest. Similarly, Australia is predicted to beach itself past the doorstep of Southeast Asia, causing the islands to be compressed inland, forming another potential mountain range. Meanwhile, Southern and Baja California are predicted to have already collided with Alaska with new mountain ranges formed between them. About 150 million years from now, the Atlantic Ocean is predicted to stop widening and begin to shrink because some of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge will have been subducted. In this scenario, a mid-ocean ridge between South America and Africa will probably be subducted first; the Atlantic Ocean is predicted to have narrowed as a result of subduction beneath the Americas. The Indian Ocean is also predicted to be smaller due to northward subduction of oceanic crust into the Central Indian trench. Antarctica is expected to shift upwards, colliding with Madagascar and Australia, enclosing a remnant of the Indian Ocean (called the Indo-Atlantic Ocean). When the last of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge is subducted beneath the Americas, the Atlantic Ocean is predicted to close rapidly. At 250 million years in the future, the Atlantic is predicted to have closed. North America is predicted to have already collided with Africa, but be in a more southerly position than where it drifted. South America is predicted to be wrapped around the southern tip of Africa, completely enclosing the Indo-Atlantic Ocean. The Pacific Ocean will have grown wider, encircling half the Earth. 150 million years from now, the Atlantic Ocean may start to close as new subduction zones along the eastern coasts of North America and South America begin to consume the ocean floor the now separates North American from Africa. List of appearances *''The Future Is Wild'' **1x01. Welcome to the Future **1x10. The Endless Desert **1x11. The Global Ocean **1x12. Graveyard Desert **1x13. The Tentacled Forest *''The Future is Wild: A Natural History of the Future'' *''The Future is Wild'' manga **06. Global Ocean **07. Rainshadow Desert **08. Northern Forest *''The Future Is Wild'' animated series **1x09. The Future Is Underground **1x13. Night Crawlers **1x14. Sweet Home Pangaea II **1x19. Swimming With Slickribbons **1x21. He Might Be Giant **1x23. Cure For The Common Megasquid Cold **1x24. Queen of the Squibbons, Part 1 **1x25. Queen of the Squibbons, Part 2 References Category:Continents Category:200 million AD